ten-buck cold

2007, December 16

With most of my partners gone back to their distant homelands (Peru, Italy) for X-mas, I could not attend any class this week. So today I tried a milonga instead.

“Quick, close the door, it’s cold!” were the welcome words by the host. Below zero outside, and not so hot inside either as there was no significant heating and the ceiling was high.

10 bucks for entrance, ok I’ve seen worse.

Only couples, and lone leaders. I counted twelve of them. None of the followers here knew me either so there was no danger of being invited. No free hot tea here but at least I had brought my current favourite book. After two hours I had read 5 or 6 more chapters while listening to tango music. Only problem, I was almost shivering because of the cold temperature combined with the lack of motion. On the floor the leaders were showing no sign of being ready to loan their follower, and around the floor the situation had not improved, there was still a shortage of followers. Definitely no chance to warm-up.

Finally one friend entered the milonga. A guy. He saw me and came by.

“How long have you been here ?

Two hours, I came when it opened.”

…like beginners do, he added mentally.

He was happy to see me, and also happy to see me leaving, I was eliberating one seat and improving the leaders/followers ratio. I hope he enjoyed his night, there were three hours left and an orchestra was announced. As for me, basically I bought a 10-buck cold.